Fortnite: an honest review

February 3, 2019

By Ricky Reader

Have you heard of Fortnite? developed by Epic Games and People Can Fly. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on July 25, 2017.

Though originally released with just the game mode Save The World, in which you must kill zombie-alien creatures and it’s reminiscent of black ops zombies, it later had a whole new game style added to it and that was Battle Royal. From then on, the game was brought to light.

Fortnite has taken the world by its storm, literally. Quickly becoming a major Twitch stream game birthing stars such as Tfue, Ninja and NICKMERCS to name just a few. Though Fortnite is aimed for all ages and is a bit of fun to relax to. However, you may find that if you play Fortnite frequently, you would probably disagree with me and say that it can indeed get quite stressful at times. Especially, when you die for reasons beyond your control, such as falling off a cliff or holding a stick of dynamite for too long, I found that out the hard way.

By now you probably asking so what exactly is Fortnite Battle Royal? Well, Fortnite B.R. is an online third-person action game. The objective of this game if you are playing alone is to fight to the death and be the last one standing out of a hundred players, and to make sure you stay out of the storm that over time pushes the remaining players together into the middle of the map, or in this case of The Island. All the while collecting materials such as wood stone and metal to make sure that you build structures to get cover or get the height advantage over an enemy making them an easy target.

But wait. Fortnite does not just have a single way to play, with the ever-changing game modes of solos, which is single player, Duos, which is Two player teams and Squads i.e teams of four or three. Again, the objective is to be the last person or team left standing, to achieve the somewhat unreachable dream of Victory Royal.

However, it is not as simple as that for there are different game modes that use the solos, duos and squads set up and it can even be season dependent. A Fortnite season will last up to ten weeks. Such game-modes are ones that give you all gold legendary guns, which are the top tier of guns you can find within the game or another which was season dependent in the season of Halloween where you had to not only kill players but also the zombie-alien creatures from Save the World, to win the game.

Recently Fortnite has introduced a new way to play the game called creative. This is a sandbox mode where you have unlimited everything and can build whatever you want. The creators will then search through and possibly pick your design to be used within the Fortnite battle royal map to showcase how talented the Gamers of Fortnite really are.

Whelsko; Flickr

Fortnite Battle Royal also has a system where you can buy items with money turned into the Fortnite currency called V-bucks and this can then be used to buy two kinds of things one is the Battle pass. The others are customisable items for your character, though they provide no in-game benefit.

The Battle Pass is how you level up and can unlock skins like the John Wick skin you can see above. When you reach level 100 the top tier. And to do this you collect stars by doing challenges and getting XP. The best way to earn XP is by playing matches. However recently Fortnite has updated it so that you can now buy levels of the Battle Pass with V-Bucks to make sure that you do reach the top tier. As you level up your battle pass you will unlock items to customise your character and profile.

Which is what the other use of V-Bucks is in the item shop that gets reset daily. Things you can buy are dances, skins, pickaxes, backpacks and gliders. However, Fortnite has now added skins for your guns and vehicles within the game and different music to listen to within the lobby rather than the original sound of the Fortnite music.

Now time for the important bit, the critique. Overall as many have said before Fortnite is a great game that is taking to the top spots of our gaming lists. But does it deserve all the credit it gets?

Well, for a start it is free to play if you have a computer games console or even now a smartphone.

Bago Games; Flickr

On top of that its graphics and style renders’ it suitable for the younger kids as well as the older ones unlike games such as call of duty or PUBG. It is also bright and colourful which encourages you to play it without being too much for the eyes.

The customisation of your character although it costs sometimes, is very inviting for those who like a more personalised feel to it such as the character customisations within say RPGs.

The range of items and weaponry is also great for it makes the game more inviting to try new playstyles, although sometimes there is a struggle in terms of balancing the weapons in terms of how strong they are. But this should be taken into consideration with the fact that Fortnite is being updated constantly and trying to keep up with being fresh and new and meeting the demands of its players.

The Game modes have primarily been enjoyable some less so like where every weapon is an explosive weapon making it very much over the top and nigh impossible to win with any skill whatsoever. Whereas others such as the dance battle game mode where you must control the dancefloors to build up points by dancing on them was a bit of laugh and enjoyable to play.

The game can be difficult when it comes to building structures and it takes some time to get used to it so the younger children who play may struggle with winning the game when their builds aren’t as great than that of say a young adult

One issue raised with the game from a man I was talking to was that they should bracket the players. Dividing up the skill levels so that the more experienced players are playing against someone of their own skill level and vice versa.

However, this would also go against what Fortnite tries to promote which is that players should help other players who might struggle with the game or show the less experienced tips and tricks on how to build better for instance.

Some parents are concerned however for their younger children who play this game as sometimes when you are playing in a team of random strangers the language might not be suitable such as a use of profanity but also due to the fact that you are a human shooting other humans and in Save The World mode there are some creepy scenes of imagery like the monsters or husks that wear human skins as hoodies.

Overall, I would give this game a rating of a 7 out of 10. Visually It is both suitable for children and for adults minus the Save the World skin-wearing monsters, but when you shoot people it does not show any blood and therefore removes the gore showing a more fun and easy-going style of gaming. In terms of gameplay, it is very easy to point, shoot and kill with a bit more complexity when you go into trying to build and with using vehicles such as the newly added planes. But also, with a great range of guns and items, it adds to the fun and somewhat crazy gameplay as no match is ever the same. And lastly, the Fortnite community is welcoming albeit the use of profanity can sometimes be unsuitable for the younger players ears.

Not only has Fortnite won the hearts and minds of millions it has generated E sports competitions for prize money. The Prize ranging from £15 to £4,000,000. With all that and more who wouldn’t want to play it. I personally think this game is amazing and I would never turn it down if I was offered to play. A bonus for myself is that this game gives my family bonding time together. This game works best with good internet, WIFI connection however so watch out for lag. One last question for you readers out there, are you part of the Fort-Rage?